Parkview's Inclusive Playground Project
A new accessible playground is coming to Parkview Center School
Thanks to parent organizing and the community’s generosity, Parkview Center School is working toward getting a brand new, accessible playground where all students can play and belong.
Parkview Center School is a K-8 public school in the Roseville Area School District with over 760 students, located at 701 County Rd B West in Roseville. The upper playground, which the majority of students ages K-6 use, has reached the end of its useable life. The playground is not accessible to children with physical disabilities and parts of it are breaking. Playgrounds are supposed to be replaced when they reach 25-30 years old and this one was built in 1998.
Now, thanks to the efforts of a group of Parkview parents and staff, the new playground will be safe, fun, and accessible for everybody.
“If we're going to replace it, let’s do it in a way that everyone can have a play space, where everyone belongs, everyone has an opportunity to play,” said Emily Dahl, the Parkview parent spearheading the Inclusive Playground Project.
Parkview's Unique Offerings
Dahl has two children at Parkview. Peter, third grade, and Sofie, second grade, have been going to Parkview since they were in kindergarten. Sophie, who has Down Syndrome, is one of the 160 students at Parkview with formally identified disabilities.
That’s 21 percent of the total Parkview student enrollment with disabilities. At Parkview there are 43 students with physical or mobility impairments impacting play. For context, 17 percent of students have disabilities in the Roseville Area School District and 18 percent of students statewide have disabilities.
Parkview’s new principal Nate Gibbs’ vision for the next school year is right in line with the goals of the new playground.
“Let’s really make sure Parkview feels like a place where every student has a friend and every student feels included,” Gibbs said. “So many of the dynamics of friendship and inclusion happen in our play spaces. We have an incredible opportunity not only to live our values, but to tell a story about how to come together and really walk the walk.”
Parkview is home to two district programs for students with specific disabilities. While Parkview is a lottery school for everyone else, for students who qualify for these programs, Parkview is their only option in the district.
These programs are known as STAR (for K-8 students with developmental cognitive disabilities) and BEAM (for students with significant emotional behavior disorders). In both programs, students spend 60-100% of their school day in a separate, special education classroom with a licensed special education teacher with specialized training. There are 25 students in the STAR program and 16 students in BEAM.
“We're structured in a way where we have the staffing and programming to be accessible and supportive. And then there are things about our physical environment obviously that aren't responsive to the needs of our students that are showing up,” said Gibbs.
Barriers to Play
“[Play is] an essential part of a student’s day. It supports academic growth, physical growth, emotional learning, belonging,” Dahl said.
In the spring of 2024, when Parkview had its annual Family Fun Night carnival, Dahl witnessed her then kindergartener struggle to access the playground.
“I just watched how hard it was for her to get to the playground. Our pathways are very steep, and they're cracked. They're asphalt, so they're bumpy and uneven. And you can't actually get on a path to the play equipment,” Dahl said. By the time Sophie did get to the playground, she encountered a foot tall wood beam barrier, which she had to climb over, into woodchips that create an uneven walking surface. Finally, once she reached the ramp, the only thing it led to was one deck with a wheel, Dahl explained.
“She's super social and loves kids. She just ended up kind of off to the side, just watching. And I left crying. It was just one of those moments where you see your child and realize that they're just not able to participate in the same way as everyone else,” Dahl said.
It was during this event that Dahl met Kristin Dillon, whose daughter uses a wheelchair and is nonverbal. When not using her wheelchair, Eliana can crawl, but the woodchips around the playground are hard on her hands and knees.
“She can't really express what she wants or needs easily. But she got very, very upset and we had a really hard time calming her down and we ended up just leaving. She also couldn't participate in a lot of the other things that were going on [at Family Fun Night] because we couldn't get to them,” Dillon explained.
Dillon discovered that her daughter was not having a good experience at recess during the school day either. She would often crawl into areas of the playground where she would get stuck. She also couldn’t practice walking with assistance because the ground was too unstable.
It was the first time Dillon's family didn’t feel included in the school. In every other way, the staff and students at Parkview have made the school welcoming and accessible, she said.
In the spring of 2025, the Family Fun Night Carnival had a new layout for better accessibility, which gave students with mobility impairments better access to all the activities. But the playground was still not accessible.
Activating the Parent Teacher Student Association
The playground experience at Family Fun Night in 2024 lit a fire under Dahl. She went to the school administration and Principal Kristen Smith Olson encouraged her to join the Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA). Most of the PTSA board had left and there was nobody to take on that leadership. So Dahl stepped up.
“I signed on to be the treasurer and then brought it up at our first meeting and got tons of traction from other family members and teachers,” Dahl said. That set the wheels in motion to create an Inclusive Playground Committee to make the need a reality.
That’s how Dahl met Carolyn Weatherhead, another Parkview parent and Director of Community Engagement at Parkview. Weatherhead joined Dahl’s Inclusive Playground Committee and acted as a staff liaison with Parkview administration and the district.
“I do a lot of work with the PTSA, so it was just a natural thing for me to support this project. Plus, my own children go to Parkview and I want them to experience play with friends of all abilities,” Weatherhead said. Her children Evie, second grade, and Liam, kindergarten, are not disabled, but will also benefit from the new playground.
Valerie Malzer, another Parkview parent on the PTSA, stepped up in a big way too. She’s a professional grant writer in the disability space, so she volunteered to use her expertise to help apply for grants.
“We hit the jackpot as she really helped us understand how to position ourselves when prepping grants before she does the final write up for applications,” Weatherhead said.
Jennifer and Gregory Wisher are two other parents who have stepped up to help with fundraising and Robin Mohs is another staff liaison on the committee, Weatherhead said.
All told, 15 family members and staff are on the committee in a variety of roles and another 20 family members and staff got involved in choosing the final design for the playground, Weatherhead explained.
"I’m incredibly thankful for the hard work, time, and energy the Parkview School Community PTSA has given this important project. The leadership of both Emily Dahl and Carolyn Weatherhead is very admirable. I’d also like to highlight the inspiring leadership of new Parkview School Principal Nate Gibbs. I look forward to celebrating the success of this project as our deserving students will enjoy a beautiful inclusive playground for long into the future," Superintendent Jenny Loeck said.
Fundraising to make the playground possible
The district pays for the maintenance of existing playgrounds, but playground replacements are the responsibility of individual school communities. The City of Roseville also doesn’t pay for or maintain school playgrounds. So any time a school needs a new playground, it’s up to the school community to fundraise to make it happen.
Over the course of the past year, Dahl met with PTAs in other school districts that raised funds to replace their playgrounds and connected with the Roseville Parks and Recreation department to learn from their expertise in building accessible playgrounds. They conducted surveys of parents, students, and teachers at Parkview to find out how students of all different abilities and disabilities use the playground and what they wanted to see in a new playground.
They also partnered with a civil engineering company to plan how to address the pathways and worked with two different vendors to come up with playground designs.
“We're just working really hard to try to get it built,” Dahl said.
They're aiming to raise $450,000—though this goal may be adjusted once final estimates come in for each part of the project. So far they've raised just under $195,000, between donations and grants, enabling them to get started on Phase 1 of the playground build.
This August, Phase 1 of the playground transformation is underway, starting with the Inclusive Whirl, Inclusive Climbing Dome, bench, spinning saddle seat, and some of the Pour in Place (PIP) surfacing. There are enough funds raised for these elements already.
The next step is to raise enough money by Spring 2026 to install the rest of the ramped structure, slides, momentum corridor, balance board, and more PIP.
After that, the fundraising will continue for the swings, musical elements, PIP, and pathways.
Over the course of the past year, they’ve secured grants and donations from the following donors:
- Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation Quality of Life grant
- Little Canada Recreation Association
- Give MN Fundraiser & End of Year Giving
- B-Dale Club
- Roseville Anderson Nelson VFW Post 7555
- Roseville Area Community Foundation grant
- Falcon Heights/Lauderdale Lions Club
- Parkview Center School
- Northeast Metro Golden K Kiwanis Club
- ECMC Foundation
- Community Member Donations
- Anonymous Individual Donors
Plus additional funds raised at a Culver's fundraiser on August 4 organized by North Ramsey 500 Lions and North Suburban Evening Lions.
The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation grant is specifically for the Inclusive Whirl and there's a specified timeline for getting it built as a requirement of the grant. That's why the school is committed to making Phase 1 of the playground build happen between August and October of this year.
“The Inclusive Whirl is an awesome piece for collaborative play as well. So, Kristin's daughter can get on here, Emily's kids can get on here, my kids. And they can all play together, which is the whole goal, that they get to all be part of the same experience,” Weatherhead said.
Student Involvement
Parkview students have also been getting involved in fundraising and conversations about what it looks like to be inclusive.
In March 2025, Parkview had a schoolwide assembly focused on inclusion and community. During the assembly, kids were invited to share how they feel when they’re included and how they feel when they include someone else. Students were paired up with different age levels to share with each other, Weatherhead said.
There are also student “play ambassadors” who are involved in raising awareness and money for the new playground. One student is making and selling beaded bracelets as a fundraiser. Other students are selling lemonade and donating the money too. The play ambassadors are featured in this video about why this new playground is important:
Maddie Wisher, one of the kids featured in the video, was one of the students who presented about the project to the school board earlier this year.
“She is being brave and sharing and articulating her story and giving that validation and power to all of us. If she can do it, I can, you know, because this isn't easy for anybody,” Dahl said. "She's been incredible and her family's been incredible.”
How to Get Involved
"There are many ways to get involved—through financial donations, business sponsorships, in-kind contributions or collaborating on fundraising events. If you’re passionate about inclusion and community, we’d love to work with you," said Weatherhead.
The Inclusive Playground Committee is beginning to plan a large community fundraiser and will continue to share updates and stories to keep the momentum going. They're also working to mobilize partnerships with organizations, businesses, and individuals who believe in the power of inclusive play. They are continually seeking out partnerships and grants from local and national organizations and foundations too.
"We’re not giving up. Inclusive play is too important. We’re confident that Parkview, Roseville, and our broader community will rise to the challenge—because every child deserves the chance to play, connect, and belong," said Dahl.
To get involved or make a tax-deductible donation toward this effort, visit the Inclusive Playground Project website.
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly identified the student play ambassador as Chloe Wisher. Her name is Maddie Wisher. The article has been updated to reflect her correct name.
